Methodology and Demographics

For the 2016 study, a 40-question survey created on G Suite was launched on October 19th, 2016. The study was promoted on the author's Twitter and Facebook accounts, and via an email newsletter to 116 people, most of whom had taken the 2015 study and wanted to stay in touch about updates. From October 19th through January 22nd, 2017, we collected 512 responses, of which we eliminated 15 responses for either indicating "Female" in their gender or as duplicate response, leaving a total of 497 unique, valid responses.

While we are unable to report where the traffic to the actual survey came from, traffic to theasianamericanman.com during the period of 10/19—1/22 had as it's top 5 referrers: Direct (400 visits—which may encapsulate traffic from Reddit), Facebook (301 visits), Twitter (147 visits), shipyoursideproject.com (29 visits) and medium.com (25 visits). Analysis was completed on Statwing, a YC-backed company now owned by Qualtrics. All charts are hosted on Statpedia. Raw data is available for as a CSV download below.

We found that just over half of respondents (56%) identified as being of East Asian descent, with the next largest group being Southeast Asian at 17%, and South Asian coming in third at 13%. Another 13% checked "Other" which included many people of mixed origins not adequately supported by our category.

​This distribution is roughly in line with 2010 Census data on the largest Asian subgroups (source).

AGE​Over three-quarters of the respondents were under the age 35, with 52% in the 25-34 year old age range, though we had some older representation and even one 65+ man take the study. There are in fact more 35-45 year old men than there are 25-35 year old men in the United States (source) which means this study significantly underrepresents both older Asian American men but also just older American men in general. Also worth noting is that within our study, South Asian and Mixed Race men skewed slightly younger compared to Southeast and East Asian men.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION​When asked what genders these men were romantically interested in, 84% indicated they were interested in women, 11% indicated they were interested in men, and another 5% indicated interest in both genders or other. While estimates of gay American men varies, one estimate appearing in the New York Times placed it at 5%, suggesting our study has slightly higher representation among gay men. (source).

GEOGRAPHYFrom a geographic distribution, we found most men to be on the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska) at 46% and the Northeast, which encompassed all of New England plus the New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, DC, and Maryland at 33%. The remaining 21% of our respondents hailed from every other state in the union.

This seems to line up with a map of Asian American population density from Pew's 2010 study (source). For comparison, these geographies (Northeast and West Coast) represent only 36% of the total US population (115M of 319M in 2014).

MARITAL STATUSJust over half our guys were single (55.4%), with the remaining men split between being in a long-term relationship (22.5%) and married (20%). Less than 2% of men reported that they were either divorced or separated. Some of this is due to younger men who are earlier in their marital lives, but even looking at men above 25, only 26% were married. For comparison, in 2012, 77% of men above 25 had been married at least once (source). While not a direct comparison, these figures suggest a higher than expected number of single men.

NATURALIZATION STATUSMost of the men in our study were "second generation" immigrants, meaning they were born in the US with one or both parents born in Asia (59%). A smaller percentage were first-generation immigrants who either moved when they were under 12 (23%) or over 12 (8.5%). An even smaller group reported having parents who were born in the US (4%).​URBAN VS RURALMost of our respondents were city-dwellers, with nearly 2/3s (63%) hailing from an urban area, with the other 1/3 coming from a suburban area (35%). A truly minimal number of folks (1%) reported living in a rural area. This is breakdown is in line with what we've seen from the general US population as of 2015 (source).

EDUCATIONThe men in our study were very well educated, with about 91% having completed a 4 year college program, including 40% that additionally completed some form of graduate school.

​For the general US population, about 36% of adults over 25 have completed a 4 year degree, with an 11-14% holding an advanced degree in 2015 (source).

INDUSTRYGiven that some of our respondents may still be in college or graduate school, we looked at respondents who were over the age of 24 and asked them what industry their company belonged to. A significant portion (45%) of respondents worked in the technology sector, which granted is a broad category, but still. The other top industries included healthcare (11%), finance, and professional services (5%).

INCOMEAgain, looking at men over 24 years old in order to factor out most students, we found that exactly half of respondents (50%) earned over $100k annual income from jobs, business activities, rent, etc, with another 33% earning between $50k and $99k.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, the median income for Asian men over 25 years old was $62k (weekly wage * 52) and the third quartile was $99k. As additional benchmarks, the 9th decile of Asian men with graduate degrees clocks in at $151k, and the average income for American men, any race, is $46k. These data points indicate that the men in our study are high earners when compared to the average American man, and even other Asian men of their demographic.